There are unlimited amounts of ways, in which, we can further our intellectual development. I have found, from my own experience, that it is not enough to just take in information from class lectures and assume that one has obtained adequate information. When I first started college, and even sometimes now, I assumed that if I attended the lectures, I wouldn't need to study; that was the method I had used all through school until this point. When I would do bad on a test, I would blame the teacher. Many times, I have complained to my mother that many of my teachers are incompetent; they should not be qualified to teach. When she would ask me why I felt this way, I would respond by saying that I attend all the classes, and if they were doing their job, I wouldn't have to study. Numerous times, she has had to explain to me that college requires great discipline, and it is MY responsibility, as a student, to gather information from other resources, rather than relying totally upon the teacher. So, it is for this reason, that I am still trying to understand that, in order to increase our academic knowledge, we must learn to use the many resources available to use. We need to realize that it is not enough to just be in the company of others who my want to pursue this career, but instead we need to learn to research material. We are very lucky to have so many ways of seeking information, such as by the means of books, articles, magazines, etc. We are at a time where we have all the resources we need at our fingertip, so there should be no excuse for any of us to not increase or learning.

We are in a field where, the lack of information or knowledge, could be detrimental to an individual. We must be willing to seek knowledge by all means possible. One way that we can further our knowledge is by attending conferences, such as the WVSSHA Conference held last spring. There, I was able to, for the first time, understand some of the information that I just was not able to grasp in the audiology class. Sometimes, it is not that one teacher method for explaining information is wrong, it just, sometimes, takes another individual to present a topic before a lightbulb is able to go off. It is also important that we always keep in touch with our fellow colleagues, because there will probably be several times when we will want their professional opinions in relation to ours. Finally, we must be willing to realize that there is ALWAYS need for improvement, and no one can ever learn TOO much.